Jay Harvey Upstage

Another joke, perhaps? A way to signal the misdirections the play itself cultivates repeatedly? Probably a simple mistake, insofar as the printed programs for "Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B" tell us that the production, which opened Friday night, runs "March 8-24,  2026."  We are probably all somewhat date-challenged in an era whose broad, dire scope has us wishing for its conclusion. In the real world of local performing arts, the public has until May 24 to see the Summit Performance Indianapolis show at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. Believe you me, it has an all-star cast and a production team operating at their best. Holmes in a moment of endless sleuthing Kate Hamill 's script is loaded with quotations from and allusions to high and low culture as it sends up the icon of fictional sleuthing. Shirley, sometimes Sherlock, Holmes (Frankie Jo Bolda) is shadowed by the trappings of female marginalization, personified by both title characters and neg...

 The glory of brass instruments fits well into an expansive definition of Eastertide, so Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and the Second Presbyterian Church Sanctuary Choir joined forces Sunday afternoon for "O Radiant Dawn," a program of sacred music by J.S. Bach and Jan Dismas Zelenka. Three trumpets for Bach, four for Zelenka helped make sure there would be plenty of splendor in movements of both works where glory was being proclaimed. Michelle Louer, director of music and fine arts at Second Presbyterian, conducted the concert in the church's spacious sanctuary, which is acoustically sumptuous as well. The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra revealed its historically informed performing acumen with Ingrid Matthews, a professor at Indiana University, as guest concertmaster. The spotlight turned on her to fine effect in the alto aria "Benedictus" of Zelenka's "Missa Paschalis," which revealed soprano soloist Madeline Apple Healey at her best level of t...

Though some of opera's loftiest achievements fit under the genre of tragedy, the art form had to escape the 18th-century strictures of opera seria   and set aside ancient gods for sad, stately operas to attract the public's esteem. It's more than sentimentality that reinforces our love for happy endings; it's also the perennial gift of music to raise our spirits uniquely.  Mozart is chief among the examples of comic genius in music, and "The Marriage of Figaro" stands at the summit, partly for skill at illuminating the emotions of real people without overstatement.  Indianapolis Opera opened a production worthy of this masterpiece Friday evening in the Tobias Theater at Newfields. Resourcefully put together from an original production at Northern Lights Music Festival  with stage direction here by Jessica Burton, the show has the special advantage of guest conductor Bernard McDonald. Director of Opera at Florida State University, McDonald brings a vast resum é...

 Influential as composer and pianist from his early eminence on the Prestige label, Mal Waldron (1925- Mal Waldron's career had a mental-health break.  2002) came through a nervous breakdown in the 1960s to launch a successful second phase of his career, gaining a sustained reputation internationally.  On the path to his late harvest he appeared with a trio at Chicago's Jazz Showcase. From the archives of club owner Joe Segal, the eminent "jazz detective" Zev Feldman has made a recording of Waldron's appearance in 1979 publicly available under the title "Stardust & Starlight at the Jazz Showcase" (Resonance Records ). It's part of an '"open sesame" effect Feldman's friendship with the late Joe Segal and his son Wayne is having, yielding more results for Resonance. Waldron's playing, supported by bassist Steve Rodby and drummer Wilbur Campbell, has the depth and careful consideration of the songs, most of them standards, tha...

To sort out my positive response to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra' s April 24 concert, let me bring to the forefront two aspects of Jun Märkl's leadership that deserve more consideration: his uncanny insight into accompaniment and his rapport with the audience. The music director has the orchestra in ready-responsive shape, to start with. If there's something subordinate to a soloist worth bringing out, he knows how to do it.  When the violas dig into their prominent line in the first movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor and the tempo increases, everyone is instantly on board. I had wondered at first if the "Allegro moderato" tempo was too moderate to start with, but very soon it was evident the launch was just right.  Near the end of that movement, there are some tender cello phrases that the ISO section produced with unanimity. In the second movement, with its prominent clarinet, nothing seemed incidental. When first-chair players...

Belle reflects on rising tide of deceased "cousins." The fascination of murderous behavior, centered on one person over time, seems to have entertainment value, especially when the victims are numerous and mystery surrounds their deaths, as well as the perpetrator's. In journalistic terms, it's a story with legs (some of them dismembered from the bodies they belonged to). When you walk into the Shelton Auditorium to attend Southbank Theatre Company 's "Hell's Belle," carnival posters greet you, flashing into view the media frenzy that fed this public fascination before the broadcast era.  The backdrop of the thrust stage, behind a few pieces of substantial farmhouse furniture, becomes from time to time a place to display historical photos and verbal messages. Amalia Howard's play carries into the production a concern for the reality of what Belle Gunness was up to in LaPorte, Indiana, in the first decade of the 20th century. The grim business of ...